book. He has made a senously Intended ec- centric movie about a black piano player (Howard E. Rollins) who demands redres for an insult. But the picture isn't even socially conscious: the character is so totally aber- rantly unbelievable that there's no social milieu that could account for him With J ames Cagney as the New York Police Com- missioner, Pat O'Brien, Donald O'Connor, Norman Mailer, Elizabeth McGovern, Mary Steenburgen, Mandy Patinkin, Kenneth McMillan, Moses Gunn, Brad Dounf, Robert Joy, and James Olson Script hy Michael Weller (11/23/81) (34th St East. Baronet and Loews State.) RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK-Steven SpIelberg di- rected this high-powered cliff-hanger about the exploits of Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford), an adventurer-archeologist. The time is 1936, and Indy, working for the United States government, is trying to find the Ark of the Covenant (a chest holding the broken stone tablets of the Ten Commandments) ahead of his arch-enemy the sauve, amoral Belloq (Paul Freeman), who IS in cahoots with the Nazi . Kinesthetically, the film works, but not emotionally \Vith Karen Allen as Mar- lOn, John Rhys-Davies as Sallah, and Ronald Lacev as Toht Written by Lawrence Kas- dan from a story idea worked up by George Lucas and Philip Kaufman (6/15/81) (57th St Playhouse, and Embassy 1. . . . (]I Olympia Quad, through Jan 21.) REDs-Warren Beatty, who was the producer, the dIrector, and the co-writer (with Trevor Griffiths), also plays the hero, the American journalist John Reed, who took part in the Bolshevik Revolution and wrote "Ten Days That Shook the World" Diane Keaton plays Reed's wife, the independent-minded Louise Bryant The film, which runs three hours and twenty minutes, IS conceived as a love story set against a background of bohemian living and revolutionary fervor. But the writers dIdn't work out a scrutable character for Louise. Beatty is often touching, and he does some of the best acting he has ever done, but he doesn't let his energy come through; he plays so much on what the audience responds to in him-the all-Amencan combination of Innocence and earnestness-that he's in danger of turning into Li'l Abner The sub- ject-the romantic life of an American Com- munist-may be daring, but the moviemak- ing is extremely traditional. With Jack Nicholson as Eugene O'Neill, and Gene Hackman, Paul Sorvino, the novelist J erzy Kosinski as Zinoviev, Edward Herrmann, and Max Wright Best of all: Maureen Sta- pleton as Emma Goldman, and a group of contemporaries of the Reeds (e.g., Rebecca West, Hamilton Fish), who appear in doc- umentary interviews as "witnesses." Cinema- tography by Vittorio Storaro (12/21/81) (Bay Cinema, Coronet, and Loews Astor Plaza.) REVENGE OF THE PINK PANTHER (1978)-Peter Sellers once agaIn as the expert in gaffes, Inspector Clouseau, whose armored ineptI- tude periodically drives Herbert Lom, as his boss, into mental institutions Story by Blake Edwards, and directed by him (Hollywood Twin Cinema 2; Jan 28-29.) SHOOT THE MOON-As Faith and George Dunlap, whose marriage has become poisoned because she knows all his weaknesses and failures, and because her kno\\<ledge eats away at hi confidence, Diane Keaton and Albert Finney give the kind of performances that in the theatre become legendary. And, in its smaller dimensions, Dana Hill's performance as their thirteen-year-old daughter is perhaps equally fine This unapologetically grownup movie about separating is perhaps the most reveal- ing American film of its era Though the di- rector, Alan Parker, doesn't do anything J.n- novative in technique, it's a modern movie in terms of its consciousness. The characters in the script, written by Bo Goldman, aren't ta ken from the movies, or from books either Their emotions are raw, and rawness is what makes this film get to you It goes way past coolness Diane Keaton has no vanity: Faith's angry misery is almost like a debauch-it makes her appear sodden And both as a character and as an actor, Finney seems star- tled and appalled by what has been let loose In him He's an actor possessed by a great role-pulled into it kicking and screaming With Peter Weller, Karen Allen, George Murdock, and three child actresses- Vlveka Davis, Tracey Gold, and Tina Yothers Fllmed on locations in northern California (1/18/82) (Cinema I. tarting Jan 22.) TESS (1980)-Roman Polanski's version of Thomas Hardy's "Tess of the D'U rbervilles" is textured and smooth and even, with lateral compositions subtly flowing into each other, the sequences are beautifully structured and the craftsmanship is hypnotic But the pic- ture is tame There's a visual passion in Hardy when he describes the Wessex countryside; Polanski's tastefully cropped compositions and unvaried pacing make nature proper. For a reader, the shock of the 1891 book is that Tess isn't simply a woman at the mercy of men, society, and nature; she's also at the mercy of her own passions. Polanski's Tess (the lovely young Nastassia Kinski, seventeen when she played the role) is strictly a victim of men and social conventions. The film takes a sympathetic, feminist position toward her-in a narrow and demeaning sense. She isn't a protagonist; she is merely a hapless, frail creature, buffeted by circumstances And Kinski-a soft, European gamine-isn't rooted in the earth of England or any other country; she's a hothouse flower who manages the West Country sounds in a small, unin- flected schoolgirl voice. She's affecting and sensitive, but she's in the wrong mOVIe With fine performances by Leigh Lawson as Alec and Peter Firth as Angel Clare, and amaz- ingly sharp, clear performances by John Col- lIn as the drunken Durbeyfield, Tony Church as Parson Tringham, and by just about everyone else in the supporting cast Made in English; shot In France, with cinematography by Geoffrey Un worth and Ghislain Cloquet (2/2/81) (Carnegie Hall Cinema; Jan. 24 ) THRONE OF BLOOD (1957)-Kurosawa's wild and fine version of "Macbeth," with Mifune, set in sixteenth-century Japan. The soundtrack pounds with noises of armor and horses' hooves, Shakespeare's main sense is kept, and so are his abiding strokes of theatre, especial- ly when the mists of the picture part to show Birnam Wood comIng to Dunsinane, one of the truly alarming shots in world cinema In Japanese. (Olympia Quad; Jan 29-30) TICKET TO HEAVEN-A Canadian film on a hot, dramatic subject. On a trip to San Francisco, the hero (Nick Mancuso), a handsome young Toronto schoolteacher, is sucked into a re- ligious cult that worships its Oriental founder Deprived of sleep, of food, and of any solitude for reflection, he gradually shrinks into a smiling child-zombie panhandler. As the hero's friend, Saul Rubinek has a wry, affectionate manner and bright, brimming eyes that register double takes The picture could have used a better script and more taut direction. but the subject in itself makes it fairly com- pelling. Based on Josh Freed's 1978 news- paper series and on his 1980 book "Moon- webs." \Vith Meg Foster, Guy Boyd, and Robert Joy, directed by Ralph L Thomas from his and Anne Cameron's script. (11/23/81) (Greenwich Playhouse, and Em- bassy 72 nd S1. . . . (]I Cinema II; through J an 21 .. (]I Olympia Quad; through Jan. 28.) TIME BANDITs-Written by two members of the Monty Python group (Michael Palin and the American expatriate Terry Gilliam, who also directed), this surreal adventure fantasy has been conceived as a movie for children and adults It's about a little English boy who is hurtled from one era to another by a pack of six dwarfs who have stolen The Su- preme Being's map of the holes in the space- time continuum, and it's as picaresque as you can get, with Ian Holm as Napoleon, John Cleese as Robin Hood Sean Connery as 23 Agamemnon, Ralph Richard on as The Su- preme Being, and David \Varner, who s a great-looking Evil Geniu . It's far from a bad mOvie, but it doesn't quite click together, either. Gilliam doesn't shape the material sat- isfyingly; this may be one of those rare pic- tures that suffer from a surfeit of good ideas With David Rappaport, Kenny Baker, Jack Purvi , Mike Edmonds, Malcolm Dixon, and Tiny Ross as the bandi ts; the boy is Craig Warnock Songs by George Harrison. (Quad Cinema, through Jan. 21.) THE WHOLE TOWN1S TALKING (1935)-John Ford directed this likdble comedy about a gentle clerk, his gangster double (Edward G Robin- son in a dual role), and the hardboiled girl, Bill, whom the clerk adores. Bill is Jean Arthur, the comedienne with the wistful- husky VOIce, her distinctive voice was one of the best sounds in the romantic comedies of the thirties and forties (Talkies made her a star, but in the silent period she was already a popular leading lady, Ford had directed her in 1923 in a John Gilbert vehicle, "Cameo Kirby") Adapted by Jo Swerling and Robert Riskin from a W R. Burnett story With Wallace Ford, EtIenne GIrardot, Donald Meek, Arthur Byron, and Edward Brophy (Thalia, Jan 26.) THE YAKUZA (1975)-An attempt to sell a romantic view of gang terism in an exotic setting The yakuza are Japanese mobsters, and one of the items in their code is that you can show penitence for an offense against the mob chieftain by sliCIng off your little finger and presenting It to him Robert Mitchum plays an American private eye who goes to Japan to rescue an American girl kidnapped by yakuzas, he enlIsts the aid of a "retired" yakuza, a master-teacher of swordsmanshIp (Takakura Ken), and they fight side by side, the gun and the sword I\t the end, Mitchum realizes that he ha offended the swordsman and commits his act of penance. A swaggeringly meretricious fairy tale, overloaded with exposition, and solemn when it means to be Orientally inscrutable Richard Jordan. as Mitchum's bodyguard. gives the film its only fresh, unexpected moments; the director, Sydney Pollack, doesn't seem to understand how action-film mechanisms operate The script, by Paul Schrader, from Leonard Schrader's story, was given a rewrite by Robert Towne With Brian Keith and Okada Eiji. (Bleecker St. Cinema, Jan. 26.) Y OJIMBO (1961 )-Akira Kurosa wa's boisterous, exuberant comedy-satire about violence, with Toshiro Mifune as an unemployed samurai, a sword for hire When our Westerner came into town, although his own past was often shady, he would pick the right side-the farmers agaInst the gamblers and the cattle thieves This samurai walks into a town divided by t\\O rival merchants quarrelling over a gambling concession, each supporting a gang of killers. He has hIS special skills and the remnants of a code of behavior, but to whom can he gIve his allegiance? He hires out to each and svstematicallv eliminates both We might expect violence carried to extremi- ty to be sickening, Kurosawa, in a triumph of bravura technique, makes it explosively comic and exhilarating There is so much dis- placement of the usual movie conventions that we don)t have the time or inclination to ask why we dre enjoying the action, we re- spond kInesthetically One of the rare J apa- nese films that is both great and funny to American audiences In Japanese (Olympia Quad; Jan 2Q-30) .. ,-J ' J ! ' r: ( -- i l C: ? II ::J:; 7 .J--r , -=.7j Y1 1 , , , . .. ... - -- 1 =- - - ;;= /1 - . · l .: :- -- ;: ; I ;R I /í . , le.- TlXM--